Friday, June 7, 2013

Rating Kings Dominion's Coasters

What a week! We're finally home and we have cool air!!! Our air conditioner is working fine (for now), so after a week away from our own beds, including a trip to Kings Dominion last weekend and camping out at my parent's house all of this week, we are relaxing at home, on our own couch, watching our own TV, eating our own food, using our own computers, and using our own bathrooms. There's no place like home!

My daughter and I had a great time at Kings Dominion, an amusement park near Richmond, VA, that I hadn't been to in over ten years. There are thirteen roller coasters at the park, and Melody and I rode eleven of them. The only reason we didn't get around to the last two was because we ran out of time, but we also wore ourselves out. Some of them were pretty intense. The following list is followed by my daughter's impressions of each of them (in italics).

1. Rebel Yell - Rebel Yell was OK... it made me kind of sick, though. It was a little rough, too.

2. The Hurler - This one was fun! It is the only wooden roller coaster at the park that goes sideways.

3. Woodstock Express (used to be the Scooby Doo Roller Coaster) - It was tight, but fun! We had some trouble getting into the cars, but not as much trouble as some people did.

4. Volcano - Since we had Fast Lane (it gets you to the front of the line), we were able to enjoy the ride a lot faster then we would if we had stood in that line! It's one of those rides where your feet dangle. I really enjoyed this ride.

5. Avalanche - It was a little too smooth for a roller coaster. It had no track, just rode around on a tube-like thing. I had to sit on my dad's lap! That was NOT comfortable!!

6. The Grizzly - Like Rebel Yell, it made me kind of sick again. It was still fun, but just a little rough.

7. Ricochet - This ride was the first Wild Mouse ride I've ever ridden. We got in line for one once, but the line was too long. It had lots of twists and turns that made you feel like you are about to fall off the edge, but it was still really fun!

8. Back Lot Stunt Coaster - Like Verbolten (Busch Gardens Williamsburg, VA), the coasters looked like cars. Except these cars were like Mini Coopers. I love Verbolten, and since this ride is similar, I loved this ride, as well.

9. Anaconda - Anaconda might have been in the same place as King Cobra, but I don't know that for sure. It was a little wild. It even went underwater once!

10. Intimidator 305 - This, I thought, was going to be the last ride of the day, but then we rode Shockwave. They strapped you in good! It goes up really high, and goes really fast! It is NASCAR themed, and if you know NASCAR, you know that the cars go really fast. So did this one. It had these twists and turns that happened one after another, knocking you into your harness. It was so rough! I didn't really like this one.

11. Shockwave - Shockwave is a stand up roller coaster. To ride it, you have to be able to have your feet flat on the floor and be able to stand above this stool-like thing. This was my first stand up roller coaster, so it was really fun. One of the ride attendants helped me have a more comfortable ride by lowering the stool-like thing. It was a fun ride.

I'm sad that we couldn't ride Flight of Fear or Dominator, but we rode some other rides that I really liked. We rode Blue Ridge Turnpike, three times, and a ride called Boo Blasters At Boo Hill, three times. Boo Blasters is where the ride that once had characters like Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear, Wally Gator, etc. etc. was, in Planet Snoopy. I look forward to going back to Kings Dominion soon!

Numbers 12 and 13 are the Dominator and Flight of Fear. Dominator, a steel, multi-looping coaster, was located near the entrance to the park, and for some reason, we never made it back to that area. Flight of Fear, which I have ridden before, is entirely indoors, in a large, enclosed, building in complete darkness, and you have no idea what is happening until it happens. It is located next to Intimidator 305, and we were too breathless from that one to be able to ride Flight of Fear.

Kings Dominion is a fairly nice park, better than I remembered, and my daughter and I plan to come back.

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